Month: October 2017

Dear friend, I know we lost touch when I left Kyrgyzstan, because our particular kinds of social awkwardness intersected in not-useful ways. I know we weren’t super close, and our paths only crossed for two years. But I always felt […]

Some strongly recommended readings on interconnection and unexpected consequences. Nudges that Fail. Cass Sunstein, in Behavioural Public Policy, Volume 1, Issue 1 May 2017. Can Only the Super-Rich Save Us? If We Believe That, Our Democratic Experiment is Doomed, from Nonprofit […]

It turns out thee are actually three kinds of empathy, and they all have different effects on the way you interact with people. Cognitive empathy is the understanding of how other people think. You are able to genuinely comprehend the […]

People ask me, sometimes, what you get from coaching that you can’t get from a conversation with a friend. The short answer: your coach is not your friend. And that’s a good thing. Here’s the long version: As a coach, […]

The Parent as Coach Parenting older kids is tricky. They still need our love, attention and protection, but they’re not tiny any more. The approaches that worked with little kids feel totally ineffective with kids who are old enough […]

Sometimes you have to email a stranger (or near-stranger) and ask a favor. No matter how far along in your career you may be, it feels awkward. I have a formula that pushes through the awkwardness, based on what I […]

It’s Valentine’s Day. What else was I going to post? Questions to get you thinking about love: What does love feel like to you? Is it difficult to love someone? Is loving yourself a concept that makes sense to you? […]